


Many Truths, Some Lies

by InevitableBladders (TheTimelessChild0)



Series: The Thaw of Loki Odinson [2]
Category: Doctor Who (2005), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Bed-Wetting, Dandelions, Embarrassment, Fluff, I reject your canon and substitute my own, Natasha Romanov Is a Good Bro, Protective Steve Rogers, Thor is a good brother
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-04
Updated: 2020-04-05
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:14:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23476054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheTimelessChild0/pseuds/InevitableBladders
Summary: Loki gets surprised, and not just by Natasha.
Series: The Thaw of Loki Odinson [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1687765
Comments: 2
Kudos: 28





	1. Dandelions

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Dandelions](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16643639) by [Star_less](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Star_less/pseuds/Star_less). 
  * Inspired by [A Court Of Disasters](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15864933) by [Willow_Of_Vanaheim](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Willow_Of_Vanaheim/pseuds/Willow_Of_Vanaheim). 



Peter had been right in his assumption about Loki’s bedwetting. At one point, Loki had even considered putting the Tesseract; which he was allowed to keep, on the condition of surveillance à la J.A.R.V.I.S., on his nightstand, into his underwear. Hoping, that whatever brought his bladder to rebel in this way, wouldn’t go so far as to make him pee on an Infinity Stone. But alas, JARVIS stopped him, and instead suggested he read a book. 

Which he did. Specifically, a book of magic. He remembered his problem being cured once before by his mother, but tried not to think too hard about how long ago that was. 

He flipped to a page about medical illnesses, and a subsection about kidneys. Right there, on the left page, was the headline:  _ Dandelions. _ It seemed vaguely odd, but he shrugged it off. 

*********************

Steve had long since come to terms with his expectations of the god’s behaviour being disproven. Exhibit A: the fact that Loki was tearing up flowers in the greenhouse. 

“What are you doing, Odinson?” he asked warily, but not unkindly. 

“This tower is meant to be a castle for Stark. Castles have flowers in many appropriate places,” Loki lied. 

“Just be careful with the roots,” Steve reminded him seeing a hint of soil on the edge of a few of the dandelions. 

Loki nodded and went to trim them. 

*********

Cap spent the afternoon training, but came up for lunch, since Bruce texted him about apple pie. 

Upon entering the living room, he immediately looked around for the flowers. There were none. 

Not even a single in the few windowsills that there were.

“Don’t tell me you’re still looking for a radio. Ever heard of Spotify? Sirius.xm?” Clint rolled his eyes.

“No. I’m looking for dandelions. Loki picked some earlier, I figured he planned to display them.” Cap explained.

“Are you sure that’s what he said?” Nat queried. “He could’ve meant it differently. What did he say?” 

“That flowers belong in castles, in appropriate places,” Steve recited. Then he frowned.  _ Maybe that’s where he got tricked. He assumed it meant on display.  _

Just then, Thor entered the room.

“Great! We need your expertise!” Steve said happily. 

“About Asgard?” Thor smiled.

“About your brother,” Bruce clarified.

“What trick did he pull this time?” the god chuckled.

“None, I think. I caught him picking flowers, and we don’t know where he put them,” Steve retold.

“Well, Asgard is indeed known for its flowers. That being said, not all flowers are meant to be displayed. Some are used in magic for a variety of purposes. It could be that he was exploiting the fact you don’t know this. They are in his room, or perhaps in the lab. What kind of flowers were they?” Thor asked. 

“Dandelions”

Thor had to fight the urge to sigh in pity. While he doubted Loki would talk to him about it, he hoped he could get the opportunity to take initiative. They were brothers, and that comes with trust.

The others stared at Thor, who seemed to be saddened by this information somehow. Bruce was thinking as well, but more worried than sad. 

“Thor?” Nat snapped him back to reality.

“Oh..yes, I don’t recall what dandelions are used for. Check his room first, if Loki didn’t use dandelions for my discomfort in our youth, it could be something new..and old,” Thor remarked vaguely, walking away. 

Steve and probably the others as well, noted the signs of the god hiding something. But the last part “new and old” was said with empathy. A single sigh was heard from Thor. 

“What does he mean? New and old? I think there’s something important there.” he stated to his friends.

Bruce was still frowning. “I wonder..there was something Thor said..about Loki as a kid,” he introduced.

“Which time?” Clint rolled his eyes. 

“It was that one special time after…” he stopped, considering. He didn’t think he could help Loki, if the team knew right away.

“After what?” Steve pressed.

“I need to prepare. Investigate on your own risk, I need to do my part in secret.” Bruce dismissed the question.

He caught up with Thor before he entered his room.

“How old is Loki in human years?” he asked the Asgardian. 

“Well, the difference is because of how slowly we age. In your terms; I believe 17,” Thor answered.

Bruce could tell his hypothesis was correct. Thor had mentioned a particular.. _ problem _ , his brother had for longer than most, even amongst his “own people” it seemed. 

“You’ve figured it out, haven’t you Doctor Banner?” Thor smiled subtly. 

“I think so, yeah. How long has it been?” Banner questioned.

“Around 6 Earth years. Long enough for him to have gotten past the last  _ wave _ , so to speak,” Thor said, barely attempting to laugh, but failing. Bruce patted him on the shoulder.

“Well, then I don’t blame him for not wanting to discuss it. Ever. Just know, I’m there if you want my involvement,” Bruce offered, walking away. 

* * *

Steve resigned to the advice of checking Loki’s room. As soon as he entered, he smelt flowers. But he didn’t see any. 

“JARVIS, where are the dandelions?” he requested.

“Sorry, but Master Loki has asked for my confidentiality surrounding these herbs,” the A.I explained, apologetically.

“I’m not gonna know what he’s using them for, just by knowing where they are,” Steve argued.

“Very well. They are under the bedspread,” 

Cap moved the blankets, and found the flowers lying neatly next to the pillow. 

He was thoroughly confused, confirming his promise of not knowing. 

Cap covered the bed again, and reached for Loki’s spellbook. 

“That’s mine,” Loki proclaimed anxiously.

Steve flinched, making sure to not be near the bed, hiding where he had been looking.

“I was just checking that the Tesseract is still in its casing,” he lied.

Loki picked up the cube playfully. “Yes, I heard about you and the man foolish enough to touch it in all of his  _ humanity _ ,” he mocked Schmidt with a laugh. 

Steve nodded and left.

* * *

Bruce wanted to be sure that Loki got help, in case it happened again. Whatever Loki did with the dandelions, to help his bedwetting, he was 101% sure it wouldn’t work. No part of the flower had that reported effect, so even taking into account magic, it was doubtful. 

He asked JARVIS to ask a favour of Captain Rogers. If Loki woke up the following night, he wanted Steve to be the one to deal with it. He could be paternal enough without whatever trait Thor had, that Loki feared. Steve agreed. He knew only that whatever the flowers did, somehow protected his sleep. Which still didn’t reveal what kept him up before. The flowers might be able to help, or they might not.

*********

As the doctor predicted, Loki woke up, wishing he had a hammer to throw across his room. Or at the Tesseract.  _ Why didn’t it work? _

Solemn but not crying, the god stripped his bed and exited his room. He was barely a few steps down the hall, when he was confronted by Steve. He instantly made himself invisible and tried to flee. 

But, Cap had taken his magic into account. JARVIS followed the protocol, and lit up the silhouette of Loki. 

“I know you’re still here. I just want to talk,” he whispered softly. 

Loki slinked towards him, once again visible.

Steve found himself wishing the sheets were wet with vomit, not urine. But the evidence was there, all the same.

“You wet your bed,” he noted, not bothering to ask. 

Loki nodded, not looking at Steve.

“Hey, that’s alright. It happens, to everyone, once in while,” Cap attempted to comfort him.

Loki winced at the assumption, moving out of the hug. 

“Not to me, I’m not that lucky,” he sneered.

“Oh..hey, it doesn’t matter that it’s been more than once,” Steve assured him. 

“It  _ does _ to me,” Loki spat, angry with himself more than the soldier.

“I’m not going to leave you to moan at yourself. Accidents happen. Even every night, I don’t care, and neither should you,” Steve grabbed Loki and hugged him properly. “We’re in this together, in thick and thin. Wet and dry,” he smiled, which Loki felt with his heart, rather than saw with his eyes.

“JARVIS, correct the man who made such a preposterous exaggeration,” the god sniffled indignantly.

“Certainly. Mr Odinson the younger has had 4 accidents at night, either every other day or every 2 days,” the A.I corrected.

“How many weeks?” Cap pressed, stroking the god’s more sensitive hairs, by his ears.

“3 and a half,” Loki sighed, while the A.I chirped simultaneously.

When the hug was over, Steve nudged the Jotun to give him his sheets. 

“I’ll take that, you go take a shower,” he suggested.

Loki surrendered. “I don’t get why the dandelions didn’t work,” he scoffed. 

“Well, I don’t know magic, but plants typically have to go inside the body to work. We’ll ask Bruce in the morning, if you want..” Cap left the option open. 

* * *

While Loki was showering, Steve decided to finally take a look at the spellbook, to find out how the dandelions were supposed to work. 

He opened the book, and on the first page, the author was listed. Queen Frigga of Asgard.

He held back an aww at the innocence of Loki, still believing every spell in the book was real. Most of them might be, but still. If he was still in the ice, he’d be free purely from the warmth of the love inside those pages.

A very wet and steaming hot Frost Giant emerged from the bathroom. 

“Have you seen my night braid?” he asked Rogers. 

“For your hair?” Steve guessed.

“Yes, I wear it at night, I hate tangles,”

Steve looked near the Tesseract and found it on the floor at the edge of the bed. 

With a fog-like wave of his hand, Loki’s hair was braided into a loose pony-tail.

“I think I know why the dandelions didn’t work,” Steve introduced, making an effort to sound sympathetic. 

He gave Loki the book, as the god was climbing back into bed, and pointed at the front page.

“My mother..,” Loki muttered, realising.

“I think she made it up, to hide whatever she actually did to help, back then,” the super-soldier guessed.

“Well, she could deceive like a proper witch as well as I can,” Loki raised an eyebrow casually.

“Either way, I reckon the bed-wetting itself has a good reason for returning, too,” 

Loki perked up. “You’re in a new place. Your body has every right to take its time getting used to the surroundings, the noises, lack of noises, smells, what have you. It just shook up your bladder a little. It’s a perfectly natural fear response. And fear isn’t shameful, either,” Steve emphasised, stroking the young man’s cheek. 

They bid each other goodnight. 


	2. I Am Loki Odinson

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> connections are made.

Steve found the breakfast table empty, except for one spider eating yoghurt. He made the teen some toast and juice. 

“You need the carbs and vitamin C,” he listed the health benefits as always. 

“I’m not thirsty,” Peter said quietly. 

“Happened again, huh?” Cap guessed, not needing to pronounce it. Bed-wetting was an irregular, but nevertheless present occurrence for Spider-Man.

Peter nodded. 

“Well, what if I told you someone else wet their bed last night too?” he remarked. 

“Yeah, right,” Parker scoffed, not believing what was implied in the slightest. 

“I’m not talking about me, Pete,” Steve smiled. 

Peter didn’t get the time to ask further questions, because the rest of the Avengers with the exception of Loki, entered and the breakfast conversation got derailed. 

*************

Loki eventually entered, looking suave as ever. He took a large sip of orange juice, and began nibbling on his usual buffalo wing. 

“See? Told you, that’s not an excuse to not drink your juice,” Steve noted, looking at the 15-year old as he took out 5 pieces of toast. 

Peter almost choked on his current sip, as his eyes widened. He stared at Loki. 

“Did you?..” he asked Loki. 

“What?” 

“Wet the bed,” Thor finished the sentence. Looking at his brother, Loki’s illusion disappeared revealing his dishevelled hair and slightly purple tinge underneath his eyes. 

“Of course not, don’t be ridiculous,” Loki said quickly, restoring his illusion at the worried looks of his teammates. 

“I told you you don’t have to be embarrassed, and I meant it. I won’t judge and neither will they,” Cap reminded him.

“I wet the bed last night too,” Peter mentioned, which no one commented on, as usual.

Loki shrugged, still staring down his glass, resisting the urge to make himself invisible.

“And we’ve had our own accidents. We’d share, but we already did that once,” Nat stated, looking at Peter. 

“I can verify. I was there. Even Tony did. In Majorca, right Dad?” Peter confirmed.

Loki was too scared to blush, but Tony turned red, stammering. “W-when did I tell you that old wives’ tale?” Stark held up his hands to dismiss the story. 

“When we had that talk about bed-wetting, as Nat said. She threatened to expose you. Well, now it’s Loki’s turn to need encouragement,” Peter explained, staring at his father, frightfully similar to Romanov.

“Alright. Yes. It was in a hotel on a mission in Majorca. The details are boring, you can look it up if you don’t know what we were doing there. You too Loki,” Tony said in resignation, though with a smile.

“I still haven’t shared mine either,” Nat smirked. The age of bed-wetting Avengers just grew by 2, so it was time to pull in all the stops.

“It was when I first moved into the tower. It was probably for the same reason you are now; adjusting. Back in Russia, the girls who were trained to be assassins were handcuffed to their beds. The lack of security in the modern bed I had was..disconcerting, to say the least,” Nat retold, 

“Whether you stop like I have or not, we’re here with zero fucks to give about it,” she commented bluntly.

“Thank you. You’re right. I did wet the bed last night. And 2 days before that, a few days every week since I came here. It’s unpleasant enough, I put dandelions beside my pillow since that was what my mother said worked, when I was younger. My name is Loki Odinson, and I’m a bed-wetter. And I’m not ashamed in the slightest,” Loki admitted happily. The others toasted with their glasses of juice. 

“To pee,” Clint joked. 

“To nocturnal enuresis,” Bruce corrected.

“To bladders,” Tony finished. 

“TO BLADDERS!” They chanted in unison.

******************

Peter and Loki enjoyed each others company for the rest of breakfast, sharing anecdotes of needing to go, and not being able to say it. 

“Rest in Peace Odin. May he bother someone else’s urinary tract,” Peter crossed his chest, in a definitely not Norse manner.

“Brother, I have a question,” Loki turned to his brother. 

“What did mother do, which she covered up with the bit about dandelions?”

“Do you really not remember?” Thor smiled. Loki shook his head, remaining confused.

“Banner! You and I need to discuss something I think will be helpful. We’ll reconvene in an hour okay, brother?” Thor boomed across the room, then speaking softly to his brother. 

  
Tony muttered, “ _ how is he doing that? _ ” while resetting his ears from the unsettling combination.


	3. Floating

Loki entered the lab, wondering if there was some filtration system waiting for him. But no. 

On a table next to Thor and Bruce, was a diaper.

“I’m not wearing that,” he said firmly. 

“It’s not just any nappy. It’s the same one you wore when you were little,” Thor defended. 

Loki approached cautiously. The design sent him into a trance. 

He really had  _ forgotten _ . The pattern on the front was of a swirling mass of stars, nebulae, and asteroids. Or, at least that’s how it looked to Bruce. 

“The time vortex,” Loki smiled quietly.

“Yes. You didn’t fuss when you put them on at all.” Thor remarked, still not sure how they were different to him. 

“I’ll take 5 at a time, in case of intruders. This stays between the 6 of us,” Loki grabbed a bundle and hid them in his cape.

“I’ll have Dum-E deliver the next batch, okay?” Bruce promised. 

“Thank you Dr Banner, truly,” Loki shook his hand, looking relieved.

*************

Loki woke up, feeling strangely light. He patted his silk pajamas. They felt colder than usual. 

_ Accidents happen,  _ he thought happily, stretching his arms and sliding out of his bed. He dabbed himself down with a flannel just in case, got changed, and resumed his sleep.

_ In his dream, he was floating. He was surrounded by many colours. He was in the Time Vortex.  _

_ The Doctor was waving at him from inside his blue box. The TARDIS.  _

_ He sat down with his feet hanging out of the ship, and said something to Loki;  _ **_remember. Time Lords wet the bed too._ **

************

__ It was a very nice dream. And yet..Loki couldn’t help but wonder wether that one sentence was somehow true. The Doctor did always seem to have messier hair during their morning lessons, and combed it as soon as it was pointed out to him. 

The breakfast went as usual. The 2 bed-wetters were not discussed, as there was no need to. Both were taken care of, in similar albeit very different ways.

“So, what kind of diapers did Bruce give you?” Tony asked, curiosity overwhelming him. 

Loki casually took one out, and put it on the table.

“It has the Time Vortex on it. It’s where the Doctor is from,” Loki explained.

“Doctor Who?” Steve questioned. 

“Just the Doctor. That’s all he said. He doesn’t have a last name. Not that Odin minded. He was a nobleman of some description,” Thor stated.

“How did you meet him?” Bruce asked. 

“He was my math tutor. In between lessons, he would tell stories about his blue box, and the Time Vortex, that he travels through. You have to travel far in the Vortex to get to his home. What was it called again?..” Loki paused in his story. 

“Gallifrey, in the Constellation of Kasterborous,” Thor recited. 

“He is 900 years old, and wore a big coat. My mother would say he was a bad influence. That is, until his stories helped my bed-wetting, I suppose,” Loki noted.

“Mother was never one to hold a grudge” the God of Thunder confirmed.

“Speaking of holding, the Doctor wets the bed too,” the Frost Giant remarked.

“When did he tell you that?” Thor was curious.

“In my dream, last night” 

“That was just a dream, brother” his brother corrected him, taking a swig of coffee, and refilling his mug.

“Not that part. It felt real. I could hear his hearts,” Loki insisted.

Thor just smiled, not convinced but not dismissive either. “Whatever you say, brother. Believe what you like,” he encouraged. 

Tony poured the younger of the 2 gods another glass of orange juice, which he sipped dramatically, smiling widely to himself.

The End.


End file.
